Why Women Are Scoring Higher Than Men on IQ Tests

Hey smartie! Have you heard the news? IQ test scores are confirming what we've known all along -- women are just as smart, if not smarter, than guys.

"About 40 or 50 years ago, men did better than women on IQ tests," James R. Flynn, an emeritus professor of political studies at the University of Otago in New Zealand and an IQ researcher, tells HealthySELF. "But when you take large, representative samples from modern nations today, women at least match men or are a point ahead of them."

Flynn, whose data will be published in his upcoming book, Are We Getting Smarter? (Cambridge University Press, September 2012), says he’s been conducting his study for the past 10 years. The five nations for which he has good data from a standard IQ test called the Raven are New Zealand, Australia, Estonia, Argentina and South Africa. In Australia, he says, women “merely match” men, but in the other nations, they are a half-point to a point and a half ahead.

“That’s a product of the last 30 years as women have entered modernity,” Flynn says, explaining that by “modernity,” he means full and equal access to modern education.

Why do IQ test scores and the relative successes of women and men matter in the first place? “An IQ test is meant to test whether you have the intellectual capacity to do academic work,” explains Flynn, and they “tend to set thresholds for educational and occupational achievement — that’s why they’re important.

“One of the most interesting things about my data,” Flynn continues, “is that not only do women match or slightly exceed men for IQ today, but if you take a boy and a girl in secondary school, both with IQs of 100 (which is considered the average IQ), the girl will get A’s and B’s while the boy will get B’s and C’s.”

Why would that be? “They’re just as bright as each other, but the boy isn’t as disciplined,” says Flynn, adding that a girl with an average IQ is much more likely to get into college than a guy with an average IQ, because “women tend to be better at formal education.” He also says that, because of this, women tend to outperform men in terms of grades in college, even if their IQ scores are lower.

We’re sure some people would argue that boys are just as “disciplined” as girls, and just as capable of receiving a formal education. But Flynn sums it up as follows: “Now that women are allowed into the modern world, they match or exceed men for IQ, but they have non-IQ advantages of being more adapted to formal education!” Bottom line: A little opportunity goes a long way!